Mobius: Rebirth
by a ghost passing by
Summary: In an alternate universe, Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik has taken over most of Mobius, now ruling over "Eggmanland" with an iron fist. Sonic and his team of friends seek out two mythical and legendary sets of emeralds that are their only hope in ending Eggman's regime.


**_AN:_**

Thanks for clicking _Mobius: Rebirth_!

Just an FYI before you read:

- Some inspiration for the story is drawn from _SatAM _(though there are no characters exclusively from that series in this story) and _Sonic Colors_, so those who liked that show/game may enjoy—or hate—this story more than those who didn't. I tried to make _Mobius: Rebirth_ as different as possible from both of these so that it wouldn't look like a carbon copy.

- Rated T for language, violence, some dark themes, and possible character death. Rating may change to M based on my mood. You have been warned.

- There are key differences in almost every character, hence the AU warning. Two important things I want to point out right now are that Knuckles is no longer the guardian of the Master Emerald and everyone is older than in canon. Slightly unrelated, but most locations are made-up, too.

- The Chaos Emeralds and the other set of emeralds (revealed later in the story) have never been discovered or used in any of Sonic and co.'s lifetimes.

- There is some shipping, but the ships play _very_ minor roles in the overall story and in most cases are just hinted at. Don't bother trying to guess the "official" pairings quite yet; odds are that you're wrong.

- There will not be any OCs, so please do _not_ ask me to put yours in this story. My last FF.N account had that problem and it aggravated me to no end. Don't take it personally, I really don't mind OCs, but this story does not need any.

I appreciate constructive criticism and it's heavily welcome (and needed…cough, cough). Please know that "constructive criticism" =/= "OMG UR STORIE WAS DA WURST TIHNG I EVR RED IN MA LIEF I HOPE UR MOM DIES IN A FIER U POZER!"

**Please note that any given chapter is subject to changes, especially those early-on, but the content will essentially be the same. Sorry for any inconveniences this may cause.**

Any Author's Notes in future chapters will be much shorter. My apologies for the length of this one – I just wanted to clear things up before I begin.

- AGPB

* * *

**- CHAPTER ONE -  
"CELEBRATION"**

Today was the 20th anniversary of the event referred to simply as "the Takeover."

Twenty years ago this day, a young politician named Dr. Ivo Robotnik rose to absolute power. However, the term "rose" is used loosely in this light – Robotnik was a political prodigy. He was young, energetic, and almost impossibly intelligent – the perfect making of a politician. Robotnik used his biting wit and charm to earn the trust and amiability of the public. His ideas were revolutionary and radical, seeming to be an attempt to uproot everything that had made up the customs of half the planet of Mobius for generations. Naturally, as with most radical ideas, Robotnik's were heavily opposed on several ends of the political spectrum.

Dr. Ivo Robotnik was grandson of Dr. Gerald Robotnik, a famed scientist known for his work in robotics, bioengineering, and weaponry.

However, in the last few months of Gerald's life, rumor had it that he had begun to spiral into insanity. It was said that this was result of a deep depression caused by the death of one of his young, but sickly, grandchildren.

Regardless of such speculation, Ivo's relations gave him Gerald's notes, something that many in his league desired.

About two years before the Takeover, Robotnik announced that after studying his grandfather's notes for many years (and even practicing in his grandfather's fields himself), he had come up with a perfect solution to the country's problems:

Robots.

The AIs he proposed could be programmed for battle, work, and even at-home assistance. He even suggested that robots could replace people alike; robots would go into work in place of an actual person, the person who would otherwise have the job received the compensation, and then everyone would have more time to do important things, like taking care of children or getting an education.

In Robotnik's designs, the materials needed for building the robots were simple and grossly over-abundant (and otherwise useless), yet sturdy and reliable, which made the thought of an army of the proposed 20,000,000-odd robots seem doable.

Naturally, Robotnik became the laughing stock of the political world. Political opponents ridiculed his ideas by saying that they wondered if reading Gerald Robotnik's notes had pushed him over the edge of sanity and reason. Lux, a neighboring island country ruled by a monarchy, said incredulously that Robotnik's plans were "an example of the negative results of watching too many science fiction movies."

However, he had no reason to be bitter; Robotnik's ideas made him a profound hit with the public. The upcoming elections for president had his name written all over it. One year before the Takeover, Dr. Ivo Robotnik joined the upcoming presidential race under the party dubbed "the New Hope Party." Many note-worthy people, including senators and civil rights activists, spoke out against Robotnik to try to make people see reason, but the loudest and most obnoxious of his supporters quickly drowned them out.

Though his opponents for president knew they had nothing on Robotnik, they fought desperately to damage his image in some way. One of the more popular methods was to call him "Dr. Eggman," referring to his rather comical egg-like physique. Much to Robotnik's displeasure, the nickname began to stick when even the people of Lux even began to refer to him as Dr. Eggman.

A popular support slogan was "This egg won't break!" as a cheeky response to the mocking that the doctor faced.

Despite all of the efforts to mudsling and all of the humiliation he was put under, Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik won the presidency in an outstanding landslide. Lux's press lamented over the now-real prospect of "Eggmanland" becoming a reality.

The people elected Eggman seven months before his actual absolute takeover. During those months, the doctor's outspoken political rivals suddenly began to disappear. It was not that they "reformed" or changed, but that they were simply _missing_. Every time a noted rival of his went missing, Dr. Eggman expressed his sorrows to the press and then almost immediately hired someone – who generally happened to support him – in their place.

The public soon became suspicious. Most thought that it was very convenient for Dr. Eggman to lose someone _against _him, and then gain a _supporter_ in little-to-no time. However, this skepticism did not worry Eggman in the slightest.

To meet everyone's growing unease from the sudden rash of kidnappings of government officials, Dr. Eggman placed a special—and robotic—police task force to go to different areas around the country and monitor for suspicious activity. He called it the Unsafe Practices Patrol, or "the UPP." Eggman told the world that this police unit would target those openly showing signs of committing a crime against the country, but in practice, it hauled anyone who even simply spoke ill of Dr. Eggman and his policies away to a lifetime in the country to the south designated for prisoners.

The press was outraged, but soon, anyone who spoke out seemed to suddenly disappear, much like Eggman's political opponents.

When word got out about a child forced to watch their parents murdered by the UPP for supposed insubordination on the parents' part, the public pleaded with Dr. Eggman to call the policing force back. To that, Eggman simply replied that they were doing their job wonderfully and that the nation was infinitely safer because of it. A similar line of reasoning was used to justify "Eggmanland's" total communication sever with Lux.

20 years ago this day, Eggman announced the country would close its doors to immigration, both to and from the country. Along with that, he announced that he would assume permanent leadership until death, and told anyone who had grievances to take it to the UPP.

The first year was hard on the public; people were outraged over what they felt was gross injustice. Dr. Eggman was, according to those against his regime, only taking the country down "as he went UPP." They called him a tyrant who cared only about his power, not about those whom he had power over.

However, the moment that several outspoken critics were reported missing, the movement went to a complete halt—in fact, it actually started to roll backwards.

Slowly but surely, Eggmanland's residents came to grips with the thought of Dr. Eggman as the permanent leader. Though some areas could have been much better off, the country was not particularly suffering. People were starting to find that (after telling themselves this many times) the UPP was not _completely _unjustified in their actions. Though tension was still present, no efforts to oust Dr. Eggman had been made openly in years, and currently things were at a shaky peace. Disappearances and murders were rarer than they were years ago. They still happened, of course, but mainly to older citizens who recalled the, in Eggman's words, "corrupt, vicious, cold, ignorant, and uncaring era before [him]."

* * *

To celebrate this momentous 20-year anniversary, Eggman and his staff created an hour-long documentary that chronicled his rise to power. It would be played in every city and town on large screens in the streets, and for those unable to go outside it would be available on specialized television screens. However, it was expected that if one could go outside that they would. Eggman assigned UPP drones to every viewing area to ensure that no one was skipping out on the required viewing.

Those who refused to watch the documentary, no matter the excuse, risked prison time or even death.

The largest city in the southern part of the country had a viewing crowd somewhere between 800,000 and 1,000,000. The city, Roehl, was up to its ears in UPP members; for every five residents, two robots were assigned to monitor the area.

A majority of the city's denizens situated themselves in the largest block of street where the largest screen was. The group was eerily silent, with only a few people whispering and the occasional infant's wail. The silence was due mostly to the people's exhaustion; though Eggman had originally stated that he would have the country's entire workforce be drones by this point, he now said that everyone had to work _extra_ to ensure that the robots would eventually become a reality. Many could fall asleep standing up.

The beauty of the day seemed to mock Roehl, a generally worn-down and crumbling city…though Eggman had made sure to put the outdoor screen on the most beautiful of the city's buildings. He chose one of the many UPP "headquarters" that dotted the large country, whose purpose was to ensure that all UPP drones were working properly and to deliver intelligence to Eggman himself. Brilliant blues colored the sky with dots of white clouds flung across it. The sun beat down relentlessly on the city, shining light that the majority of its citizens had not seen for weeks on end because of work, reflecting off the large metal building in front of the people of Roehl and heating the afternoon air to uncomfortable levels.

A young pink hedgehog stood near the front of the crowd that surrounded the largest screen. She looked to be in her late teens or very early twenties. Her red dress complimented her slim figure well. A rather large white purse slung over her shoulder brushed down her mid-thighs. Her rosy pink quills were cropped down to her chin, and three quills pointed out lazily over her somber, tired-looking emerald eyes.

She was orphaned as a small child; her parents were a victim of misunderstanding involving former family friends and the UPP drones, as she preferred to summarize the event. An older human adopted her when she was a week shy of being seven years old. Her adoptive father, a teacher at a college, was a silent rebel of Eggman's system. He had made sure that she knew of the ways that Dr. Eggman was corrupted and wrong, and she had indeed retained almost every word of his teachings. Still, she had remained mostly indifferent towards the doctor.

That is, she had remained indifferent until her adoptive father died.

A sudden sickness had claimed his life very recently, and she had all but convinced herself that it was an illness unnaturally caused. It unfortunately had taken this event to happen in order for her to finally begin to form an opinion on Dr. Eggman.

Suddenly, the whispers around her fell completely silent. The screen ahead of her began to flicker all sorts of colors before the symbol of the country flashed on, a large red and black "E" in the center of two interconnected gold circles. A glorious fanfare blared all around her, echoing throughout the soulless and gloomy city. The noise pressed relentlessly on her deep exhaustion-caused migraine. The song faded out after a few moments and Eggman's unmistakable voice replaced it.

"Good evening to you all," the doctor said on the screen, a broad grin painted onto his face. "Surely you all know who I am, but for those who don't, I am your president, Dr. Ivo Robotnik." He quickly added with a mutter, "Though some of you have taken a liking to 'Eggman'…"

Dr. Eggman shook his head slightly and cleared his throat, running his gloved fingers through one side of his comically large auburn mustache, smiling even more wildly. "I would like to announce that today is the splendid anniversary of my presidency. It has been a _fantastic_ 20 years so far, and I know deep down inside that my next years will be even better!

"I would like to say that it was I who stabilized this turbulent country and eliminated all previous corruption. I would like to say that it was I who refused to let the unruly nation of Lux influence our wonderful people. I would also like to say that it was I who put in the Unsafe Practices Patrol, since ensuring the security of this great nation. However, I cannot claim this credit, for it was _you_ who elected me in the first place. For that, you all have my dearest gratitude.

"I've come up here today to remind you all how far we've come and how high we'll continue to reach. My research team and I have compiled a list of clips for us to observe, remember, and cherish."

The screen went completely black for a few moments, and the young hedgehog held back a few tears, hanging her head. The sight of Dr. Eggman had made her feel sick to her stomach. She had always felt that his grotesque appearance reflected his sadistic and manipulative personality. She wanted his head on her dinner plate, she wanted his remains dumped in the prison country, but most importantly, she wanted to be _free_. The lies he told used to be tolerable, but now that she had been finally beginning to understand fully what her adoptive father was telling her about, they drove her mad, biting and scratching at her sanity as the moments went by.

Now, there was a clip on-screen that showed hazy recordings of dozens of UPP drones in training. "This is my – or rather, _your _– greatest achievement! The Unsafe Practices Patrol, a.k.a. 'the UPP,' drones exist solely to protect the country from threats within," Eggman narrated. "Executions are a hard fact of life, but no one wants to have their country jeopardized, do they?" There was a now a clip of the robotic officers firing at practice targets in the shape of people that were various sizes, including child-like. "We have never been safer!"

The pink hedgehog found herself moving forward against her will.

She pushed the few rows of people ahead of her aside, much to their agitation. The hair on the back of her neck stood as she practically felt the robotic sensors of the UPP drones directed on her – but it was almost as if she wanted them to see her.

Movements were almost automatic to her as she quickly ran into a nearby alleyway, pulled a crate from it in, and moved it in front of the crowd. The young hedgehog carefully but hurriedly stood atop of the crate as the first clip was just about over.

She looked over the crowd. The first few rows stared up at her in shock while the rest of the crowd did not seem to notice her. She found something deeply inside of herself that she had not recognized before and slowly but surely, it overtook her. A new voice erupted in her mind and she had to struggle to even barely contain it.

When she could bear no more of it, her body trembling, she shouted as loudly as she could, "He's lying!"

Now she had the entire crowd's attention. The pink hedgehog felt the eyes of hundreds of Unsafe Practices Patrol drones train on her.

"Robotnik's a liar! He doesn't care about anyone here! He just wants power, and we let him take it from us! He follows his own rules and kills anyone who gets in the way! I know for a fact that most of you here have lost someone to the UPP." It was if words were forming on their own; she did not even need to think about what she was saying. "All he does is give us empty promises, can't you see that? Everything he's said he would do, he's doing the _opposite_! There aren't any real threats to us except for _him_!" She pointed towards the screen accusingly, where it was now showing Eggman performing one of his early speeches.

That was UPP's cue to move in on her. Ten of them marched silently in two groups towards the enraged girl. Slowly, a sense of panic began to overcome her as she watched them move, creeping into her veins and spreading itself through her system like a poison. Her heart raced a mile a minute as she quickly reached into her large white purse, searching for an object that had kept her safe all these years – at least, so far. She looked frantically at the two groups that were closing in on her as she dug. "Stay back!" she bellowed, stumbling off the crate rather ungracefully and backing up towards the screen.

Suddenly, she felt cold metal brush her fingertips. Her heart skipped a beat and she grasped it as tightly as she could. In her hand was a small metal rod that seemed to be barely bigger than her palm. She pulled the rod out of her purse and jammed the small button on the bottom of it.

The rod expanded quickly, suddenly becoming about half the length of her body. The determined yet panicked hedgehog girl pointed one side of it at one team of drones. The end she pointed with formed a rod on the left and right sides, and the ends of both of the newly made rods quickly fanned out, making flat, circular dishes. The dishes at the end of the staff quickly sent out two curved metal sheets that connected and formed a dense cylinder that looked bigger than the hedgehog's head.

The small and inconspicuous silver rod was now a large and very lethal-looking mallet.

She let out an unearthly scream and swung her new mallet around frantically on both sides of her. Any UPP drones that got too close to her became much acquainted with her destructive weapon and almost shattered completely on contact.

The pink hedgehog was clearly deceptively strong for her looks. Her birth-parents had given her the retractable mallet so she could protect herself from anyone who threatened her, and she learned to wield it expertly within a few years. It was just her tool – the force behind it was all her.

Ten drones soon became one-hundred, and one-hundred evolved into five-hundred as they called for backup. Strong and skilled as she was, the continuous onslaught of drones was finally beginning to take its toll on the hedgehog. The crowd stood in a stunned silence and looked on in fear, seeming unwilling to help. Eggman certainly had trained his dogs well.

The drones came at her from all sides, calling out commands and running at her at frightening speeds. The UPP finally began to draw their weapons – large clubs resembling baseball bats – as they realized that she was not going down without a fight.

The pink hedgehog was growing frustrated with her current technique; the drones were starting to get faster – almost too fast. She quickly wiped her sweat-drenched gloves on her dress and put a death grip on her mallet. She took in a deep breath and started to spin in place, her mallet swinging loosely as she turned.

The hedgehog soon became a pink, red, and silver tornado that destroyed any UPP drone that attempted to touch her, but the move was very dizzying and it wore her out after only a minute. The drones continued to charge at her, refusing to let her rest for even a second. She went back to her old method of swinging aimlessly at both sides of her, and because of how fast the drones were moving, shrapnel was finally beginning to hit her. The metal from the robots scraped across her hands and arms, making small tears and holes in her gloves and scratching her bare skin.

She let out a few empty swings from her powerful mallet before letting the heavier side hit the concrete with a _clang_. After going so long without breathing, she finally gasped in air. No more drones were coming for her, which sent a foreboding shudder up and down her spine.

The entire scene had lasted five or six minutes. The crowd had backed up to shield themselves from the shrapnel flying everywhere in the wake of her destruction. The pink hedgehog panted heavily and weakly wiped away sweat from her brow with a shaky hand as she looked over her catastrophe.

Scraps of metal that were vaguely in the shape of body parts littered the area. Most had the remains of some sort of weapon on or around them. The young hedgehog looked up and saw that she had embedded several broken UPP drones into the large screen, causing the video to flicker and glitch occasionally. Panic was slowly beginning to fill her entire body as she recognized that the situation did not look very good for her. She turned around to run away, but instead found herself nose-to-barrel with an UPP-issued taser.

The patrol officer looked down the barrel of his gun at her with his unfeeling red eyes, and though he had no mouth, the hedgehog could feel him scowling dirtily at her. Its body was mainly red, but it had black, silver, and gold accents on its abdomen that resembled the overcoat that Dr. Eggman generally wore. Its entire body was covered in dents and scratches, and one of its glowing red eyes seemed to be damaged. The gun it held was black with golden accents along the sides. It was clearly a higher-up drone, because only the officials were trusted with guns and tasers.

"State your name," the UPP officer said in a deep and heavily digitized voice.

The pink hedgehog hesitated and recoiled slightly. She did not want to reveal her name in case she _somehow_ managed to escape; her adoptive father had warned against saying her actual name to anyone in some way related to the government, no matter what, because they could track her files and find her much more easily.

Thankfully, her mind was very quick and she came up with a fake name after a moment of thinking. "A-Amy. Amy Rose," she said faintly. Her mother's name was Amy and her actual first name was similar to Rose. It certainly was not much, but it worked for the moment. She pressed the button on her mallet and it almost instantly retracted to its ultra-compact size.

"By order of the Unsafe Practices Patrol and Dr. Ivo Robotnik, I am sentencing you to immediate execution for your insubordination towards your country," it said in its unwavering and eerie voice. "You respectfully have a moment to reconcile with your god. Do not try to flee."

The girl who called herself Amy felt her heart leap into her throat and her blood run cold.

She would die right here in front of everyone.

Her body wanted to cry, but she simply could not muster the energy for it. She had been running on empty since she had first woken up, but the recent incident left her just short of lifeless. Instead, she swallowed, closed her eyes, and held onto her compact hammer as tightly as she could.

_Whoosh!_

Suddenly, a heavy object crashed into her side without slowing down for a second. Her breath shot out of her lungs almost as fast as whatever had hit her was going, almost causing her to pass out. Wind forced itself into her ears as if there were a hidden treasure trove deep inside of them. Through the abuse her body was taking, however, Amy felt...safe. Something had wrapped itself around her shoulders and legs, holding onto her as tightly as possible and warming her body through the frigid gale.

_'Is this…is this what death feels like?' _she couldn't help but wonder.

Her eyes were still closed tightly, and at this point, she was afraid to open them.

It must have been almost 20 minutes before Amy felt herself slow down – not that her scrambled senses could even tell. She was still curled into a ball, her eyes shut tightly and her hand gripping her compact mallet as if it were a balloon and it would float away if she let go. The awkward jerking around she had felt the entire time stopped suddenly, and she felt as if she were finally on stable ground. The sounds of birds and cicadas filled her ears now instead of a howling wind and something tickled her exposed flesh.

"You can open your eyes now, ya know," someone suddenly said, a smile in their voice.

Amy flinched in surprise. Tentatively, she sat upright and slowly opened her eyes.

The pink hedgehog looked down and put her gloved hands on the soft grassy earth. Amy looked up to the sky only to see the leaves of trees with decorative dots of the blue sky. The air was much cooler than that of the city, perhaps due to the amount of trees and shade, she decided, and a scent of pine flirted with her nose. A small blue jay flew quickly and silently past her when she finally realized where she was.

A forest. She was in a forest.

"You okay? You…kinda flipped out back there. I got ya right before they would've killed ya," the same person said, making Amy flinch again as she was called away from her thoughts.

Amy whirled her head around and saw a cobalt hedgehog sitting on a moss-covered boulder. He looked a few years older than her, maybe nearing his mid-20s, and he was slightly taller than her. The hedgehog looked at her with a broad grin on his face and his emerald eyes bright and cheerful. He wore a tight red button-up vest around his upper body, white gloves, and red shoes that had a single white stripe and a yellow buckle. "Where…? What happened?" she asked distantly, her mind still dazed.

The blue hedgehog chuckled. "You were about to get executed, but I got ya in time."

Amy looked at him fixatedly. "You…you saved my life?"

"Well, yeah. I guess I did," he said with false modesty and a broad grin.

"How'd you get away?" she asked, completely awestruck.

The blue hedgehog laughed boisterously, leaning forward and even slapping his leg. He pretended to wipe away a tear and leaned back. "Whaddaya mean 'how'd I get away'? I _ran_, of course! I'm the fastest-fuckin'-thing alive!"

Amy's eyes widened with wonder. "R-really?"

He grinned devilishly and folded his arms across his chest. "They don't call me 'Sonic the Hedgehog' for nothin', ya know."

"Sonic the Hedgehog," she repeated softly to herself. She was clearly moonstruck; this hedgehog was her charming, handsome hero. What more could a girl want?

"What can I call ya?"

Amy snapped out of her trance. "Amy Rose will do just fine," she said, shaking her head slightly and waving a hand dismissively. "How can I pay you back?"

"Pay me back?" Sonic repeated incredulously. "For what? Doin' my job?"

"Saving people is your job?"

Sonic raised an eyebrow at the pink hedgehog and shrugged. "Well…not _really_, I guess…but taking down ol' Egghead is."

Amy froze. "You're trying to take down Dr. Robotnik?"

"What? Of course! Yadda yadda, blah blah, long story short: the dude's insane and I don't like him much. I figured that I'd better save someone who's against him for the sake of the cause, y'know?" Sonic flashed her another grin and Amy felt her heart melt.

"Wow," she found herself saying, looking down bashfully.

Sonic chuckled a little awkwardly and looked up at the sky. Suddenly, his eyes widened, and he looked back at Amy with a genuinely guilty look on his face. "Err…listen, I have to go. I'll be late to a meeting I've got here in a few, and I do _not_ do late. It was awesome meetin' ya, Amy! It'd be best if ya didn't go out for a while."

"You're just gonna leave me here?" asked Amy in dismay. She had just found her shining white knight and now he was leaving!

"I think you'll survive with that hammer…mallet thingy. You've also got guts, Ames. Hopefully I'll see ya again." Sonic turned and stretched his body out, placing himself in a running position.

The pink hedgehog gasped and quickly got to her feet. "W-wait! Can I come with you?"

Sonic sighed and stood upright and looked at her up and down. "Uh…I dunno if the others would exactly just let ya join. I mean, you got my vote, but theirs is a little harder to get."

"There's others? Well, if they get in my way, I'll just smash 'em!" Amy said enthusiastically. "C'mon, _please_ can I go? I don't have anyone else."

He inhaled deeply and looked off to the side for a moment, clearly in thought. "Well…I don't see why not, but like I said, I dunno if the others would let ya stay very long."

Amy squealed with joy and embraced her blue hero. "Thank you thank you thank you _THANK YOU_!" she shouted and jumped up and down while holding onto him.

"Whoa, hey!" Sonic said, quickly pushing her off him. "I'm not the clingy kind of guy, Ames," he said with a nervous chuckle.

"S-sorry…I couldn't help it," Amy said, looking down at her boots. "You're just so sweet!" She looked up at the Blue Blur, a conflicting sense of longing and bashfulness decorating her face.

Sonic's eyes widened and he raised an eyebrow. "Right, yeah, no, it's cool," he said, shaking his head slightly. "Anyways, how fast can ya run?"

Amy shrugged. "Not as fast as you."

He scoffed and rolled his eyes. "No shit, man. So are ya saying that'cha can't keep up?"

After a moment of thinking, Amy smiled sheepishly and shrugged again.

Sonic groaned in exasperation. "I'll just carry you; I don't wanna slow down more than I have to." With what looked to Amy like a single, swift motion, Sonic scooped her up into his arms and went into a running position once more. "I wouldn't recommend opening your mouth unless ya wanna rent it out to bugs."

Amy gasped and quickly scrunched her face up, curling up into a slight ball.

The blue speed demon grinned, and, after saying a silent countdown to himself, shot forward at nearly the speed of sound.

* * *

Sonic was extremely skilled at navigating through the forest; he had, after all, been living here for over half of his life. Though the trees were just blurs in his vision, he expertly weaved through them. Sonic made sure that as few branches would hit Amy as possible. However, that was a little difficult since Sonic had not practiced _carrying_ someone through the forest.

Leaves made small cuts on his arms as he passed them by at lightning speed, something he was long used to by now. The feeling of the wind blowing through his quills was exhilarating and eagerly welcomed by the speed-addicted hedgehog.

Suddenly, a flash of red caught his eye in the blur of brown and green. Sonic slowed down to a very modest – for him at least – speed of 50 miles-per-hour. The red object he had seen signaled that he was about a quarter mile away from his campground.

Sonic cringed slightly as he remembered that his two friends probably would not be very happy that he was bringing someone with him. He hoped they would understand that Amy did not have anywhere else to go, and that she was likely to be a good contribution to the team. The two were generally understanding people, but at the same time were adamant on staying in a small group. All Sonic could do was hope for the best.

Another red glint passed Sonic by in a blur and he came to a complete and abrupt stop. "We're here," Sonic whispered and placed Amy down gently onto her feet. He quickly dashed over to a nearby tree and untied an old red sweatshirt from it. The sweatshirt had been the flash of red he had seen mere moments ago.

Amy looked around with a puzzled look on her face. To her the area was no different from the one she had just been in. "Where's 'here'?" she asked as Sonic was tying the sweatshirt around his waist.

Sonic gave her a harsh _shush_ and crouched over beside a large blueberry bush. "Stay here for a sec, 'kay?" he whispered and dove into the bush without waiting for a response.

The blue hedgehog rolled out of the other side of the bush after a few seconds. In front of him hung a thick and long wall of lush ivy vines that swayed gently in the breeze. It was an artificially made wall, but it closely resembled the natural ivy clusters that decorated the overwhelmingly large forest. Sonic leaped forward, doing a front flip and landing perfectly in an act of fantastic grandeur. "I'm back, gentlemen!" he declared, getting down on one knee and throwing his arms out wide.

Now, Sonic stood in a very small clearing that could fit, at most, a dozen people. Two small camouflage tents were set up next to a small smoldering campfire set up on bare ground. Four navy blue canteens hung on the side of one of the tents. Sonic waited a few moments and received no response. "I said…I'm back, gentlemen!"

Suddenly, violent jerking rustled the tent farthest from Sonic and small cries of protest rang out. The opening unzipped and a young fox and an echidna tumbled out rather unceremoniously. They looked up at Sonic with slightly embarrassed looks on their faces.

"H-hey, Sonic!" the fox greeted with a painful groan. He looked to be in his later teens, though his blue eyes retained a child-like quality to them. His body fur was yellow with an orange tint to it while his muzzle and stomach fur were white. He wore gloves and shoes that were almost identical to Sonic's own. Overall, he was rather average except for one thing: he had two tails instead of one, blamed in part on an unsanitary Eggman-sponsored factory near where his mother lived up until he was born. This prompted Sonic to give him the affectionate nickname "Tails" for obvious reasons. "We were just talking about you!"

Sonic raised an eyebrow at the two. "How'd Knuckles get on top of ya? Were you two doin' somethin'…y'know…freaky?" He made an abstract movement with his hips and arms. "I won't judge, I swear."

Tails opened his mouth to say something, but the red echidna, Knuckles, spoke up angrily. "He wouldn't move outta my way!" he said, not seeming to understand Sonic's implication. Sonic could see in Knuckles' violet eyes that he was clearly aggravated. The red echidna was only about a year or two older than Sonic. He was a textbook hothead, but he definitely had compassion for his friends as long as they gave him his space. Like his two teammates, he wore white gloves, but his were unique; they were in the shape of boxing gloves, and along his knuckles were two sharp spikes that made for a painful punch for anyone on the other end. His shoes were red with a yellow stripe down the middle, a large white buckle, and green cuffs.

The two-tailed fox grunted in discomfort whenever Knuckles even slightly shifted his body weight. Knuckles had pinned Tails down on his chest and abdomen. "Could you, y'know, _get the heck off me?_" Tails wheezed and pushed futilely at Knuckles' arms.

Knuckles gave him a scowl, but he stood up nonetheless. Sonic untied and threw the red sweater at the echidna playfully.

Tails inhaled deeply and quickly scrambled up. He looked at Sonic a little awkwardly. "Did you get anything good in the city? Any info?"

Sonic grinned sheepishly. "Nah, Bro. City was pumped up with too many drones for me to get anything good." He pulled off his red vest and threw it in the general direction of a tent.

"You were gone an hour and a half and you got _nothing?_" Knuckles asked. "What in the hell kept you so long?"

Sonic cleared his throat as he tried to think of a good excuse, but his mind came up short. Lying was not his strong suit – both a blessing and a curse. "Uh...well, it's not that I didn't get anything…"

As if on cue, the bushes behind Sonic rustled violently. Tails quickly stood his ground and Knuckles threw himself in front of the fox like a shield. Adrenaline pumped through their bodies. The ivy wall parted, and out from it came none other than Amy Rose. "He got _me!_" she declared proudly and pointed one of her thumbs to herself.

"Who the hell is that?" Tails shouted, panic and anger clear in his voice.

Sonic quickly ran in front of Amy and threw his hands out in front of him. "Her name's Amy," he quickly explained. "Look, I met her in the city, and –"

"So while we were sitting here all worried that something happened to you, you were out on a date?" Knuckles fumed, his body trembling and his eyes aflame in rage.

"Dammit, Knuckles, would ya let me finish before ya get your panties all bunched in a knot?" Sonic shouted in exasperation. "You didn't see her! The city was showin' some kind of tribute to Egghead, and she went up in front of everybody and _exploded_!" Sonic made a gesture with his hands that resembled something, well, exploding. "She completely bashed the system, even callin' Eggman a liar! And when the UPP started goin' after her, she took down at_ least _a thousand drones by herself!"

The two's jaws immediately dropped. "How?" Tails asked her in awe, unable to take his eyes off her.

Amy looked down at her feet humbly and shrugged. "I dunno. I just kinda felt like I had to, so my body did the rest, I guess. I wouldn't be here if Sonic didn't save me, though." Amy looked over at her blue heartthrob with obvious affection.

"They were literally _seconds_ from executin' her before I got her," Sonic said with a wide grin. "She used some kind of hammer thing to wreck 'em all." Sonic quickly reached into Amy's purse despite her protests and pulled out the silver metal rod that was the compact hammer.

Tails quickly snatched it out of Sonic's hands and observed it delicately. He had always had a fascination with peculiar devices and inventions.

"D-don't push the button!" Amy squeaked anxiously and cupped her hands over her mouth and nose.

"Don't worry; I'm the smart one in the group," Tails said distantly as he continued to look it over, a small glint in his eyes.

"Hey!" Sonic and Knuckles both cried out.

Tails ignored them. "I sure haven't seen anything like it before," he said. "Is this custom?"

Amy nodded. "My grandpa made it. He passed it down to my first dad, and then Dad gave it to me."

"How does it work?" asked Tails.

"Here, give it to me," Amy said. He handed her back the rod a little reluctantly. "It's not too complicated, really! See, I press this tiny button here, and from the looks of it, little compartments open up and make the rod bigger." She hesitated, her finger just above the button. "You might wanna stand back."

Amy smiled when the three boys quickly jumped back and she pressed the small red button at the bottom of the rod. Instantly, the metal elongated in its usual fashion, and the mallet head fanned out on the top of the rod. Amy twirled the newly formed mallet around as if it were weightless.

Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails exchanged quick glances and looked at the pink hedgehog in awe. "So I was thinkin' that maybe she could hang out with us," Sonic said.

"I'm cool with that," Tails said quickly, eager to have time to study the hammer's mechanisms for his own personal projects.

Knuckles was silent for a few moments. Though considered extraordinarily gullible by most, including Sonic and Tails, he never had been very open to the idea of trusting new people. He eyed Amy up and down. She did not exactly _look_ dangerous, but she was armed. Knuckles furrowed his brow and sighed. "I guess," he said reluctantly. "But don't be gettin' too comfy; if I say you're gone, you're outta here, no questions asked."

Amy squealed and quickly jumped up and down. "Thank you!" she said giddily and quickly hugged all three of them, making sure to hold onto Sonic the longest.

Sonic pushed her off him gently after she started to snuggle against him. "N-no biggie," he said with an awkward chuckle. "Welcome to the team!"

* * *

Dr. Eggman sat idly at his mahogany desk, shuffling through important-looking papers with his chin in his hand and occasionally glancing at his nearby computer. The noise the papers made was the only sound in the room. The robust doctor preferred to work in the quiet, as he thought that it heightened his focus.

He quickly took a single note down on one of his papers with his pure-gold pen and continued to read. Eggman leaned back in his black rotating chair and glanced over at his wall that he often likened to a library. The many bookshelves were the same color as his desk and all but hid the earth-colored wall.

He turned his absentminded gaze to the rest of the room. The black-tiled floor had a single rounded carpet that was a dark red flecked with black and gold. The ceiling had many lights that seemed to be dug inside of it, each covered by a thin and round plastic screen. Eggman had adjusted the lights so that only the one above his desk was on. It gave him a certain atmosphere of isolation, as well as a unique sense of power that he particularly enjoyed while he worked on important business.

One could imagine Dr. Eggman's displeasure when he suddenly heard a firm knock at the door.

The doctor stiffened for a moment, and then sighed, gently moving his paperwork off to the side. "Come in," he announced, making sure to put in a subtle hint of annoyance in his voice. He quickly flipped a nearby switch that lit the entire room and effectively destroyed the ambience.

The door opened gently, making a small _creak_ as the hinges rotated.

Standing in the doorway was a large robot, the size of an above-average man. Its limbs were slim metallic rods that seemed comically disproportionate with the rest of its body, especially in regards to its hands and feet. Its abdomen was a simple circle colored red and black with accents of gold, the standard colors of all of Eggman's robots.

The robot quickly made a salute at Eggman and took several steps forward, making sure to duck to avoid hitting the top of the doorframe. The robot quickly got down on one knee and bowed its head. "Sir, an Unsafe Practices Patrol officer wishes to speak with you," the robot said in its droning voice.

"Send it in," Eggman said and gave an absent-minded wave.

The robot quickly stood and gave another salute before exiting.

Eggman sighed and squeezed his eyebrows together as if he had a headache. "Whatever this is better be important," he cautioned. He did not need to add anything further.

Small _clanks_ came from the hallway outside. Inside came a UPP patrol officer that looked damaged; dents and scratches littered its abdomen and head. A single piece of shrapnel was lodged in its left eye, causing it to flicker occasionally. Now it had Eggman's undivided attention. It gave a quick salute. "Unsafe Practices Patrol, model A113. Region: South-East. Location: 32.002 degrees north, 27.000923 degrees east, name: Roehl. Original assignment: monitor. Current duty: Report."

"Just come out with it," Eggman said curtly.

"Sir," began the officer, "we have a situation with at least one of our citizens. It is inadvisable to take this report lightly."

The doctor froze for a moment, and then nodded. "Go on, but keep it to the point."

"Yes, sir. At approximately 16:47, a dissenter openly presented itself in front of the entire city. When attempted to be apprehended, said dissenter fought back, causing damage to both the city and to Unsafe Practices Patrolmen. When I moved in to execute, dissenter vanished."

Eggman's eyes widened for a moment and his eyebrows furrowed. "Vanished…?" he said in awe. No one had _ever_ managed to escape his drones' forces. "Give me your camera chip, A113," he ordered.

The robot nodded and quickly moved in front of Eggman's desk, crouching down and leaning its head towards him. Eggman reached forward and pulled out a small chip from inside a hidden compartment. He inserted the chip into his computer and quickly skipped ahead to the time that the officer had reported.

On his screen, a noticeably tired and tearful pink hedgehog was looking down the barrel of a gun. She closed her eyes and then – _whoosh_ – vanished as A113 had described. Eggman furrowed his eyebrows, leaned in slowly, and played the video again at a slower speed. A small flicker of blue flashed across the screen, making the doctor jolt in surprise. He worked his jaw around as he thought.

Eggman played the scene again, this time even slower. The flicker of blue had now become a large blur that scarred the entire face of the video. Flecks of white and red that were not visible before decorated the screen, and he noticed the girl wrapped ever so slightly around the blur.

"What in the hell are you?" he muttered bitterly to himself, setting the playback to play frame-by-frame. He put his chin in his palm, looking at every frame up and down with his scrutinizing eyes. He inhaled sharply as the blue blur came into view. Eggman quickly paused the recording and twisted the monitor for the UPP officer to see, a grin pasted onto his face and a glint of excitement in his eyes. "Check your memory banks for anything resembling whoever this is, even if the match is only slight."

The monitor displayed a fuzzy picture of what looked like a blue hedgehog in a thick-looking red vest. A determined, yet cocky and defiant expression decorated his young face. He was looking straight at the camera, as if he knew Eggman would eventually see him and was offering up a challenge, one that the doctor gladly accepted.

"Right away, sir."

**- END OF CHAPTER ONE -**

* * *

**Special thanks go to my buddies _Aspiring Mythmaker_ and _Psyblurmist_ for taking the time to go through this story and make corrections/provide feedback. Really, you guys rock.**

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